Automatic threshold control for multi-level signals

Symbol recovery for multi-level digital signals has traditionally been difficult because of the nature of the eye pattern output by the discriminator (103), and especially its response to a noisy or impeded signal environment. This method and apparatus for recovery thresholds adjusts (411 and 417) to the current state of the discriminator (103) output of the received signal, based on an attenuated (301) version of that signal. Using a fast adjust mode and slow adjust mode, the threshold generating circuitry (331 and 361) adapts to the signal based on data from the received signal fed into lock detectors (329 and 359) which determine the mode to use.